The current status and future perspectives on the successful industrialization of biobased succinic acid are discussed in a comprehensive review article in the peer-reviewed journal Industrial Biotechnology.

Succinic acid is one of the most important platform chemicals, with applications as a pharmaceutical ingredient, food additive, precursor of various chemicals, and raw material for biobased polymers. There is increasing demand for the sustainable production of succinic acid and its derivatives.

Sang Yup Lee, from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and coauthors, review the status of microbial succinic acid production, summarizing the titer, yield, and productivity achieved by various metabolically engineered microorganisms. They also discuss downstream processes for the purification of biobased succinic acid and showcase microbial production of several succinic acid derivatives of interest.

This paper, submitted by Professor Sang Yup Lee, a highly distinguished innovator and pioneer in the field of systems metabolic engineering, is an excellent example of the cutting-edge science published by Industrial Biotechnology."

Richard A. Gross, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.